Aging Graciously: Writing can be therapy
I belong to several writing groups. Lately I’ve become aware that much of our writing is generated by unhappiness, loss or indignation.
As new people join, we find that they have started writing after the loss of a spouse, parent or child. Some write their feelings in poetry, others in essays, or even books. Some of it is poignant to the point of bringing listeners to tears, others, simply hard-felt feelings splashed on paper.
I don’t know whether anyone is a born writer in the vein of painters, dancers and musicians. Everything I read in researching this says that anyone can learn to write, draw, paint, dance or sing. That may be true in a learning sense, but we all know when we are probably not going to be the next starring artist.
I feel like I might have been born to write. My genealogy has introduced me to a number of family writers that I never knew. Mother read to us often until we could take it up ourselves. We knew the love of plot and character. I still have my first short stories, pecked out on my father’s office typewriter, one finger at a time, beginning, middle and end, when I was in the fourth grade. One was something I only imagined, the loss of a mate by a wild wolf. The other, touching closer to home because my father had been very much involved in WWII, about a soldier who had lost his arms in battle, delivering a medal to the parents of his friend who had died.
From that point on, I wrote, finding journalism in the seventh grade and studying it the rest of my life, writing my friends’ essays in high school and loving being on the newspaper staff. I had wonderful teachers in high school and college who pounded the concepts of objective creativity into us daily, never letting us break the cardinal rules of journalism. Today, news is presented more as entertainment than as simple objective facts. Writers include their opinions, frequently using the words excited or thrilled to let the reader know how they feel about an upcoming event.
Many people are afraid to put their thoughts on paper. They have been victims of the current trend of being forced to write formulaic essays based on a prompt. The writer is told exactly how to write each paragraph successfully. There is no room for creativity, it is boring and generates dislike for the written word, not to mention failure to please.
Through the years I have found that putting my feelings on paper is the best therapy available for me. When I am really angry, I can tear into someone, tell them exactly how I feel, and then tear it up … or in some cases send it. When I am inordinately sad, I can see my words as well as hear them in my head. I can re-read and re-read to my heart’s content, until my words can no longer make me cry.
Writing is a wonderful exercise, therapy, completion. Those in our groups who spell out their sorrows, their longings and fears, are giving themselves and those who listen, a gift. You do not have to belong to a group. Try it on your own. Write down your thoughts and feelings. Keep a journal, go back weeks or even years later and see whether your feelings have changed. You will be amazed.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Aging Graciously: Writing can be therapy
